From
his first music lessons at the age of four, to his studying music
performance at Old Dominion University and music business at UCLA, to
his recent release, Everlasting,
composer/producer/mulit-instrumentalist Ryan Farish has clearly been
making a musical splash. Just a few highlights from Ryan's
amazing bio: he had 1.8 million downloads via his website on mp3.com;
his music has been featured on The Weather Channel's Local on the 8's; he wrote the theme music for the prime time TV show Storm Stories; had his music used as part of the Freedom Towers documentary. His national debut album, Beautiful, reached #10 on the Billboard Top New Age chart and was also ranked #1 on Music Choice’s Soundscapes. Ryan’s sophomore record, From the Sky,
hit #3 on the Billboard New Age chart five weeks after its release and
was the second most downloaded Jazz album on iTunes for two consecutive
weeks. And here's just a short list of companies that have
benefited from Ryan musical expertise: IBM, SONY, Columbia Tri-Star
Pictures, COX Communications, IQ Television Group, Lifetime Network,
Red Cross, Freedom Stone (Innovative Stone), Disney, and The Weather
Channel.
Ryan sites Moby, Robert Miles and BT as inspirations for Everlasting
and I’m not going to argue. But like all talented artists,
Ryan has his own instantly identifiable musical sensibility.
It’s a sound millions of listeners love. Including myself.
To learn more about Ryan and his music, please visit his website at RyanFarish.com.
Jamie:
Everlasting
sure has some great melodies on it! The kind that stick in my
ear and I end up humming all day. Does melody writing come
easily to you?
Ryan:
Hey Jamie, thanks so much! Melodies often come easy. They come in two
ways. One, I will hear the complete melody in my head, and then just
need to record it. The other way, is by just sitting there at the
keyboard and soloing... in the solo, I will hear something I like as a
melody, in what I’m playing, and then I just have to usually
make a couple tweaks before it becomes the final melody to the song, or
section of the song.
Jamie: So, are you writing the arrangement
around the melody?
Ryan: No, most of the time I start a tune with
the bass line, chords or a drum groove/percussion idea. In my songs, I
spend a great deal of time working out the grooves. Most of the time,
the groove inspires the melody.
Jamie: I have to ask then, what inspires the
groove?
Ryan: Well, as far as what inspires the
grooves... that can be a number of things. A sound, a melody popping
into my head... a chord progression. To be honest, it’s
really hard to say, because it just happens. Sometimes it comes easier
than others, but usually the best grooves are the ones that come the
easiest, and just pop into my head.
Jamie: I hear you... It's usually the least
"forced" ideas that work best for most artists. The arrangements and production on Everlasting are uniformly excellent. From your last
comments, I'm guessing that your approach to composition includes
production. Do you feel that a tune like "Together We Will
Conquer" would work as well as it does with a different style (i.e.
acoustic-based) of production?
Ryan: Thanks Jamie, yeah I spent quite a bit of
time on the production side of things for Everlasting. I seem to have a passion both for composition, as
well as the art of music production. This is a good question, as with
much of my songs the production is something that helped shape the
tune. I think "Together We Will Conquer" would work well as an acoustic
arrangement, and I will most likely perform it at some point in an
acoustic setting. I have spent time playing with friends and musicians
where we have performed some of my songs acoustically, and I am
actually pretty surprised at how a lot of them really lend themselves
to acoustic versions. Yes, the production on Everlasting plays a huge part in its overall sound, and I
appreciate you noticing that. I really tried to push myself to another
level of growth on this record. Both compositionally as well as from
the production side of things. I was really excited that we brought in
Emily Lazzar from the Lodge in NYC, to master this record. It was a
milestone for me as an engineer to be able to put something together
that we felt deserved such high end mastering treatment.
Jamie: A mastering engineer told me years ago
that he felt the albums that were the easiest to master had the best
arrangements and production. That really made a lot of sense
to me. If the arrangement is solid and the
engineering/production is top notch, then the mastering engineer can
focus on making things sound fantastic versus correcting a bunch of
audio "problems". Everlasting sounds terrific, so I imagine there were very few
(or no) "problems" Emily had to fix. From an engineering
perspective, what did you learn in making Everlasting? Any tips or tricks you can pass along?
Ryan: Well, as far as tips the general rule is
to fix things at the source. Meaning, take the time to get the proper
levels, and sound as your tracking. Focus on getting great sounds,
prior to relying on effects or plugins. Strive to get a clean
recording, minimal noise. Take the time to consider the wiring in your
studio, the cables you use... the gear. I found that my Digital
Recordings were warmed up greatly by the addition of a few analog
pieces, such as the Avalon 747sp, and the Avalon U5.
Jamie: All good points! I think
you're absolutely right about getting great sounds first -- there
really is no substitute. And since we're talking about gear,
could you describe your studio?
Ryan: My studio is Mac based. I run a Power
Mac, Power Book and iBook. I have various hardware and software
instruments, and various pieces of analog hardware which helps smooth
out and warm up the sounds. I keep a Pearl Masters Custom drum kit (7
piece) mic’ed and ready for recording or sampling, as well as
a Roland V Drum kit used for triggering samples (sometimes of the Pearl
Kit ;-). Also, I have a couple favorite guitars; my Martin and Cordoba
are used the most in my studio both for writing and recording.
Jamie: You've done extremely well licensing your
music. Your compositions have been placed in a number of
productions such as the TV series Missing
and the film Into
The Sun starring Steven Segal. Is licensing
something you actively pursue? And, secondly, what impact do
you feel it has had on your album sales?
Ryan: Most of the music I have licensed
recently has not been music from my last three albums. I view my music
licensing and music for picture work as a separate division of my
business, and artist career - although they parallel each other nicely.
Jamie: I was just visiting your MySpace
page and enjoying your video. Pretty
groovy light show! Are you doing much live performing in
support of Everlasting?
Ryan: Thanks Jamie. No, I am currently focused
on doing more recordings, and an upcoming music video we are producing
for "Mercy Follows". I'm really excited about that!
Jamie: Sounds like you're going to be really
busy! Anything else on the go that you'd like to talk about?
Ryan: Yeah, it's an exciting time for
us! We are also very excited to present the Selected Works
and Selected
Works Xpanded collections. These are the "Best of" my
early albums such as Daydreamer
and Beyond
the Horizon, which have been unavailable for a couple
years now. I am so excited to have them available again as downloads
from www.ryanfarish.com
and on CD from Amazon.com.
Jamie: That's great! Thanks so much
for taking the time to do this artist-to-artist conversation.
Best of luck in the future and please stay in touch!
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